Catacombs of Paris

Wikipedia - "The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris is a underground ossuary in Paris, France. Located south of the former city gate (the 'Barrière d'Enfer' at today's Place Denfert-Rochereau), the ossuary holds the remains of about six million people[1] and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris's stone mines. Opened in the late 18th century, the underground cemetery became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1874. Following an incident of vandalism, they were closed to the public in September 2009 and reopened 19 December of the same year."
Wikipedia
National Geographic: Paris Catacombs
National Geographic: Under Paris
National Geographic: maps
CNN - Bone people: The explorers of the Parisian catacombs (Video)
“Scariest Places on Earth”: The Paris Catacombs (Video)
YouTube: The Empire of Death - Paris Catacombs, Inside the Catacombs of Paris, Paris Catacombs Exploration 2009

The Days of The Commune (2012) - Zoe Beloff

"In the spring of 2012 I brought together a group of actors, activists and artists to perform Brecht’s play 'The Days of the Commune' in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Thinking about OWS as a radical theater of the people, inspired me to conceptualize this project as a 'work in progress' in a sense that all social movements are a work in progress and I wanted this work to be visible. Rather than stage the play in a theater, we performed it scene by scene in public spaces around New York City starting in Zuccotti Park. These public rehearsals ran from March through May, the months of the Paris Commune's brief existence in the spring of 1871. ... - Zoe Beloff"
UbuWeb (Video)
W - The Days of the Commune
The Days of the Commune

2009 December: Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht
2011 August: W - Communards’ Wall 1871
2012 March: The Threepenny Opera - Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill
2012 July: Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht / Weill & Eisler - Dagmar Krause

Guy Klucevsek

Wikipedia - "Guy Klucevsek (born February 26, 1947) is an American-born accordionist and composer. Klucevsek is one of relatively few accordion players active in jazz and free improvisation. Klucevsek was born and raised outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has released 21 albums as a leader or co-leader, and has recorded or performed with Dave Douglas, John Zorn. Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson and others."
Wikipedia
Guy Klucevsek
Piero Scaruffi
YouTube: Alive and Composing: Guy Klucevsek 17:10
YouTube: Dancing on the Volcano, Virginia (Mrs Woolf), Old Woman Who Dances With the Sea, Viavy Rose Variations, Dining In The Rough In The Buff, Loosening Up the Queen, Bandoneons, basil and bay leaves

Cubism and Abstract Art

"In assembling the works for Cubism and Abstract Art (MoMA Exh. #46, March 2-April 19, 1936), The Museum of Modern Art looked not only to American but also to European collectors and museums; a total of fifty-nine paintings and nineteen sculptures were borrowed from overseas. On arrival at the United States Customs, the paintings were admitted, but all nineteen sculptures were denied entry. The sculptures were, like the paintings, to have entered under Paragraph 1807 of the United States Customs Tariff Act that provided for the free importation of original paintings and sculptures as works of art."
MoMA
the art object

The Mill Pond - John Fahey

"John Fahey occupies a unique place in the history of modern guitar music. He was able to merge country blues with influences like Bela Bartok, Charles Ives, and Indian ragas and somehow make it all work. Later he experimented with tape manipulation, samples, and even played the electric guitar."
WFMU: John Fahey's Mill Pond Double EP (Video)
dusted (Video)
W - The Mill Pond
allmusic (Video)

2009 March: John Fahey
2011 March: Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You (The Fonotone Years 1958-1965)
2012 September: Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice)

The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames

John Frederick Kensett
"In the late 18th century, British artists developed the large-scale panorama, which became a popular form of entertainment in Europe and the United States. The Hudson River Museum’s exhibition The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames explores the panoramic vista as the ideal expression for a new, all-embracing way of seeing the landscape that influenced how the public and artists perceived it as well. By the early 19th century, painters such as Robert Havell Jr. worked to express this panoramic perspective in their choice and depiction of vistas."
Hudson River Museum
amazon - The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames

Silent Movies - Marc Ribot

"Silent Movies, the new release from guitar great Marc Ribot, finds him taking another surprising step in a career filled with unexpected turns. One might expect a program of solo guitar music from Ribot to be filled with bracing atonality or studies in texture. Instead, Silent Movies is filled with performances of gorgeous contemplation that linger on the mind long after they are over. The album reflects Ribot’s fascination with movies and contains pieces intended to function as music for films: some are adaptations of music he has actually written for films, others for classic silent movies that he scored for his personal amusement, still others for films of his own imagination."
Pi Recordings
allmusic
all about jazz
npr: Marc Ribot: Translating 'Silent Movies' To Music (Video)
YouTube: Marc Ribot Trio - Fat Man Blues 2011, The Kid, The Sous Le Ciel de Paris, Bateau, Delancey Waltz, Postcard from NY

2011 February: Selling Water By the Side of the River - Evan Lurie
2012 August: 2010 | Jazz in Marciac | John Zorn
2012 September: Marc Ribot

Dust & Grooves

"Dust & Grooves is a photography and interview project documenting vinyl collectors in their most natural and intimate environment: the record room. Dust & Grooves maintains the integrity and history of vinyl, as well as the musical heritage that goes along with every record in these collections. Dust & Grooves is the only project of its kind that documents vinyl lovers and their collections in this most intimate way. The project will continue to help preserve the integrity of vinyl records as well as the many colorful personalities that collect them. As technology moves forward and many music formats go digital, Dust & Grooves helps keep the rich, warm, analog life of vinyl spinning."
Dust & Grooves (Video)
Dust & Grooves: Extra Cuts (Video)
facebook
mixcloud
vimeo: The Dust & Grooves photo book Kickstarter project

Ashbery live webcast interview: audio recording segmented by topic

"On February 12, 2013, I interviewed John Ashbery in his Chelsea (New York, NY) apartment, and moderated a discussion with people gathered at the Kelly Writers House, while many hundreds more watched via live webcast. Thanks to Anna Zalokostas, PennSound’s Ashbery page now offers the audio-only version (in [listen] downloadable MP3 format, as always) of the discussion, and, also, links to audio excerpts segmented by topic. Here are those segments..."
Jacket2 (Video)

2007 November: John Ashbery

Snowflake Bentley

Wikipedia - "Wilson Alwyn 'Snowflake' Bentley (February 9, 1865 – December 23, 1931), born in Jericho, Vermont, is one of the first known photographers of snowflakes. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated. Kenneth G. Libbrecht notes that the techniques used by Bentley to photograph snowflakes are essentially the same as used today, and that whilst the quality of his photographs reflect the technical limitations of the equipment of the era 'he did it so well that hardly anybody bothered to photograph snowflakes for almost 100 years'. The broadest collection of Bentley's photographs is held by the Jericho Historical Society in his home town, Jericho, Vermont." Tinker...
Wikipedia
Snowflake Bentley
Wilson A. Bentley: Pioneering Photographer of Snowflakes
YouTube: "The Snowflake Man" (a short film about Snowflake Bentley)

José Parlá

Wikipedia - "José Parlá is an artist who assumes several roles in order to create his work; he acts as a historical transcriber, and a visual raconteur. As a transcriber, he records his experiences in calligraphic and palimpsestic code. Serving as a collection of textually chronicled memories, the markings appear on backdrops that resemble the distressed surfaces he encounters – the cosmetic results of passed time – city walls marred from layers of paint, old posters, and years of neglect. As a storyteller, Parlá presents a leitmotif of an enigmatic narrative, reaching to translate moments that only a visual dialogue can convey."
Wikipedia
José Parlá
arrested motion
NOWNESS: José Parlá: Broken Language (Video)
YouTube: Walrus TV Artist Feature: José Parlá

Scientist On Dub

"Dub-reggae pioneer, Hopeton Brown, also known as The Scientist visits the Red Bull Music Academy studios in London in November of 2010. Here, he explains the concept of making a dub."
YouTube: Scientist On Dub, What is Dub? Scientist, Badawi, Ticklah, DJ Rupture @ Dubspot NYC

2009 August: Scientist

Christopher McFall

"Christopher McFall is an experimental composer/sound artist based in Kansas City, USA. His primary interest involves the concept of arranging analog source audio to serve as a gateway for experiencing visual environments, whereby the resulting recordings translate into soundtrack of spaces specific to each listener. The methodology behind Christopher’s workings involves the use of piano, phonograph, saxophone and field recordings captured on chemically treated/decaying audio tape recordings that are then layered and further manipulated in a digital format."
Resting Bell (Video)
disquiet (Video)
Impulsive Habitat (Video)
acts of silence (Video)
Entr’acte (Video)
YouTube: Untitled III, Third Guest, Tightrope's Ailing, Exquisite Sender, Untitled 2

The Hardy Boy Poems by Eric Wayne Dickey

"Beard of Bees is an independent, free press. We are based in Oak Park, Illinois and Paris, France. Beard of Bees is committed to publishing quality chapbooks by liberated poets from Anywhere. We do not discriminate against non-human or post-human artists. Our latest human-authored chapbook is The Hardy Boy Poems by Eric Wayne Dickey."
Beard of Bees
PDF: The Hardy Boy Poems by Eric Wayne Dickey

2010 October: The Hardy Boy

Recap: FAILE at the New York City Ballet

"We had a great time checking out FAILE's installation at the New York City Ballet. The piece was four stories high, composed of over 2,500 boxes and beautifully lit to bring out every inch of the vibrant structure. Each box was painted on all six sides. Below are some pictures from the event, but we definitely recommend you visiting the Lincoln Center to check it out if you have the chance. The magnitude of this project is best felt and experienced in person!"
Wooster Collective

New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual

"This site is dedicated to serve as an archival record of a first edition NYCTA Graphics Standards Manual designed by Massimo Vignelli of Unimark International. The manual was found in a locker beneath old gym clothes. Roll over the images to magnify. Enjoy. New York 1970."
The Standards Manual
Vignelli, Designer of Famous Subway Map, Defends His Version Over These Others (IMAGES)
NYT: The Subway Map That Rattled New Yorkers
Designspiration

2008 July: Transit Maps of the World
2009 August: Kick Map
2010 December: The Subway Issue
2011 August: West Fourth Street – Washington Square
2012 June: The Underground New York Public Library
2012 August: Tunneling Below Second Avenue

Barb Choit: Fade Diary

"Rachel Uffner Gallery is pleased to present a show of new work by Barb Choit. For her second solo show at the gallery, Choit will exhibit a selection from an ongoing series of photographs, and will install a neon sculpture in the gallery’s front window. As in her earlier work, the artist continues here to explore fading as a photographic process—not just in its familiar dependence on the camera—but also as it is found in the world, in printed materials whose colors have become gradually faded by the photochemical impact of the sun’s UV rays. Channeling the tradition of street photography, Choit concentrates on the shop window as her subject matter. The layered reflections that figure in her images recall proto-documentary French photographer Eugene Atget's pictures of the same subject."
Rachel Uffner Gallery
Rachel Uffner Gallery: Gallery Publications

Rosanne Cash - Live From Zone C

"Intimate acoustic set by Rosanne Cash and her husband, John Leventhal in their living room (aka Zone C). Includes exclusive live recordings of songs from throughout her career, as chosen exclusively by twitter requests. Hosted by Lizz Winstead."
VPRX (Video)
Rosanne Cash, 'Sea of Heartbreak' (Video)
YouTube: Seven Year Ache, September When It Comes, Sea Of Heartbreak, Blue Moon With Heartache, Runaway Train, House On The Lake, Black Cadillac, Good Intent, Sleeping In Paris

2010 March: Rosanne Cash
2012 January: Black Cadillac
2012 April: "I Was Watching You" 
2012 July: The Wheel

Pablo O'Higgins

La huelga de Cananea
Wikipedia - "Pablo Esteban O'Higgins (born Paul Higgins Stevenson; March 1, 1904 - July 16, 1983) was an American-Mexican artist, muralist and illustrator. ... Like [Diego] Rivera, O'Higgins became an active member of the Mexican Communist Party. He immigrated to Mexico permanently in 1924, joined the party in 1927, and maintained his party membership until 1947. His political illustrations for the Daily Worker won him a year's study at the Academy of Art in Moscow on a Soviet Scholarship in 1933."
Wikipedia
Google
ArtDaily: The Intriguing Story of Muralist Pablo O'Higgins Told in New Book
YouTube: Exposicion "Dibujo y Gráfica de Pablo O'Higgins"

J. J. Barnes

Wikipedia - "J. J. Barnes (born James Jay Barnes, November 30, 1943, Detroit, Michigan) is an American R&B singer. He first recorded in 1960. His early releases including 'Just One More Time' and 'Please Let Me In', on the record labels Mickay and Ric-Tic, had relatively little success, but were subsequently picked up as Northern soul favorites. ... His biggest hit single came in 1967 with "Baby Please Come Back Home", which, like many of his records, he co-wrote."
Wikipedia
The Golden World Story - JJ Barnes
YouTube: BABY PLEASE COME BACK HOME, (Tell Me) Ain't It The Truth, Real Humdinger, Please Let Me In, I've Seen The Light, CHAINS OF LOVE

2012 October: Northern Soul
2012 December: The obsession that is Northern Soul

idem paris - David Lynch

David Lynch - "Hervé Chandès from the Fondation Cartier brought me over to Idem and introduced me to Patrice Forest. I see this incredible place, and I get the opportunity to work there. And this was like a dream! It just opened up this brand-new world of the lithography and the magic of lithography, the magic of the stones. And it was a great, great thing! This thing of lithography, this channel of lithography opened up and a bunch of ideas came flowing out and it led to about a hundred lithographs. I will say that Idem printing studio has a unique, very special mood, and it is so conducive to creating."
idem paris (video)
W - Lithography
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Lithography in the Nineteenth Century
YouTube: The Of Art Lithography, Printmaking Processes: Lithography

Athénaïse - Kate Chopin

"Three years ago, Story of the Week presented the Kate Chopin story, 'A Respectable Woman,' whose heroine is unsettled by her attraction to Gouvernail, her husband’s friend. Gouvernail appears again in the much longer, more complex story 'Athénaïse,' and he fills a very similar role: the 'sensitive bachelor' (to borrow author Joyce Dyer’s characterization) whose attentions to a married woman straddle the line between flirtatiousness and thoughtfulness. Athénaïse, the married woman of the story, is trapped—limited by the opportunities afforded to her by society."
Athénaïse
W - Kate Chopin

Viktor (1986) - Pina Bausch

"The first co-production of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch with Teatro Argentina and the City of Rome. As with much of Bausch’s work the imagery in Viktor is brilliantly bizarre and breathtakingly beautiful. The audience is transported through the fragmented action by the human characters who carefully communicate personalities through a few precise gestures or perfectly pitched words. Viktor is accompanied by a combination of symphonic music, folk tunes and music composed for social dancing - from the Middle Ages to the Jazz Age. Even though the work deals with human pain and neurosis, much of it is humorous."
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch — Viktor
DanceTabs
Telegraph
Guardian - Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Viktor – review
a studio in covent garden
Viktor - 1986
Tanztheater Wuppertal - Viktor
YouKu: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch - Viktor

2008 May: Pina Bausch
2009 June: Pina Bausch 1940-2009
2012 August: Pina Bausch Costumes

Tank Battles: The Songs of Hanns Eisler - Dagmar Krause

Wikipedia - "Tank Battles: The Songs of Hanns Eisler is a solo album by German singer Dagmar Krause released by Island Records in 1988. It is a collection of 26 songs by German composer Hanns Eisler sung by Krause in English. She also sung the songs in the original German which were released by Island at the same time on a companion album, Panzerschlacht: Die Lieder von Hanns Eisler."
Wikipedia
W - Hanns Eisler
YouTube: Song of a German Mother, The Songs of Hanns Eisler - 2° parte, The Songs of Hanns Eisler - 3° parte

2010 January: Dagmar Krause
2010 February: Art Bears
2012 July: Supply and Demand: Songs by Brecht / Weill & Eisler
2012 November: News from Babel

Muthologos: Lectures And Interviews - Charles Olson

"Charles Olson’s insistence that the public value of any articulation is inseparable from the particulars of the time and place of its origins resulted in the proprioceptive methodology of his composition—in his speech and his writing, in both poetry and prose. Olson did not 'lecture' — he 'talked.' His encyclopedic knowledge of the subjects that interested him engaged in a manner always as surprising to himself as to his listeners. This element of discovery was to him a true measure of what is authentic in language, and it exhibits itself most in the impromptu exchanges of which Muthologos is mainly composed."
Talonbooks
Jacket2 - Charles Olson: "Poetry and Truth" at Beloit College on PennSound
Muthologos: Charles Olson and the Paris Review interviews
amazon

2009 January: Charles Olson
2010 September: Charles Olson: The Art of Poetry No. 12
2010 December: "In Cold Hell, in Thicket", NET film
2011 July: Charles Olson: February 21, 1957
2012 April: A Trip to Charles Olson’s Gloucester
2012 June: In Which We Lather Our Sensibilities At Length
2013 January: Mass.Charles Olson

The Troggs Tapes

"Reg Presley, lead singer of the Sixties rock group The Troggs, died Monday at the age of 71. The Troggs (short for Troglodytes) are often mentioned as a major influence on the punk rock movement of the 1970s. They recorded a string of hits between 1966 and 1968, most notably 'Wild Thing.' The Troggs are also remembered—much to the band’s chagrin—for one of the most notorious bootlegs ever: 'The Troggs Tapes,' described by Uncut magazine as a 'hilarious, 12-minute swearathon.'"
Open Culture (YouTube)
YouTube: With A Girl Like You, Love Is All Around

2010 April: The Troggs

Joseph Allard

Wikipedia - "Joseph Allard (February 1, 1873 – November 14, 1947) was a Canadian fiddler and composer. He occasionally recorded under the pseudonym Maxime Toupin. Allard made many popular recordings, including Reel de l'Aveugle, Reel de Chateauguay, Reel de Jacques Cartier, and Reel du voyageur. During most of his life he was rarely in the public eye, and worked much of his life as a fisherman."
Wikipedia
allmusic
YouTube: La mère Blanche, Reel Du Pendu (Hangman's Reel), La Joie Du Soldat (Soldiers Joy)

The Gleaners and I (2000) - Agnès Varda

Wikipedia - "The Gleaners and I (French: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse, 'The gleaners and the female gleaner') is a French documentary by Agnès Varda that features various kinds of gleaning. ... The film tracks a series of gleaners as they hunt for food, knicknacks, and personal connection. Varda travels French countryside and city to find and film not only field gleaners, but also urban gleaners and those connected to gleaners, including a wealthy restaurant owner whose ancestors were gleaners. The film spends time capturing the many aspects of gleaning and the many people who glean to survive."
Wikipedia
W - Gleaning
Senses of Cinema - Trash And Treasure: The Gleaners And I
On the Commons
Salon
Fandor: The Gleaners and I
YouTube: The Gleaners and I - trailer, The Gleaners and I - Official Trailer

August 2010: Agnès Varda
May 2011: The Beaches of Agnès
2011 December: Interview - Agnès Varda

Elizabeth Catlett

Sharecropper, 1952
Wikipedia - "Elizabeth Catlett Mora (April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012) was an American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker. Catlett is best known for the black, expressionistic sculptures and prints she produced during the 1960s and 1970s, which are seen as politically charged."
Wikipedia
The Sculpture of Elizabeth Catlett
NYT: Elizabeth Catlett, Sculptor With Eye on Social Issues, Is Dead at 96
African American Art
YouTube: The Art of Elizabeth Catlett, My Childhood, Struggling to Get My MFA from the University of Iowa, How I Met My Husband of 56 Years, Pancho, Being Detained by the Mexican Department of Interior

Hand Drawn Map Association

map #64 - Tanaloth
"With your help, the Hand Drawn Map Association has assembled a large collection of maps in both physical and digital formats comprising an immense variety of unique interpretations of place. It has been an absolute pleasure to share these with you. The time has come to slow things down a bit in order to concentrate on other projects. Though the web archive will continue to be maintained and made available here at handmaps.org, the HDMA is no longer accepting maps for our website. Submissions for our physical archive will continue to be accepted via postal mail."
Hand Drawn Map Association
Facebook
designboom
amazon: From Here to There: A Curious Collection from the Hand Drawn Map Association
flickr
Design Notes